Argentina finds itself in deep trouble in early World Cup action
Hi everyone, this is Jeff and welcome to Plain English for Monday, June 25, 2018. On today’s episode, you’ll hear all the latest from the World Cup in Russia. Because this is a bonus episode, we did not have enough time to do the typical translations, but you can still find a full word-for-word English transcript of the program on the web site. I goofed up a little bit, so the numbers are out of order. The last episode was 57, but I recorded this coming Wedneday’s episode last week and called it number 58, forgetting that I’d publish this special one today. So today’s episode is number 59, so you can get the transcript at PlainEnglish.com/59. Wednesday’s will be number 58. It’ll be a little bit like traveling back in time. This is the kind of mistake I should have been making back around episode seven or eight, not approaching the sixtieth episode. Regardless, once again, you can find today’s transcript at PlainEnglish.com/59.
Six teams moving onto knockout round
We don’t know who’s going to win, but we do know a few countries that will not win. The early action in the Group phase has eliminated Egypt, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Peru, Costa Rica, Tunisia and Panama. Six teams have already qualified to move onto the knockout stage: Russia, Uruguay, France, Croatia, Belgium and England.
A couple of teams are on the verge of getting into the next round. Brazil, Denmark, and Spain just need one point—either a win or a draw—to advance. Mexico, despite having some—ahem—off-the-field distractions, is in the same situation. They need just to draw against Sweden to be guaranteed a spot in the next round. They can also advance if Germany loses. By the way, Mexico stunned defending champions Germany in the opening game 1-0 and then beat South Korea on Saturday morning. I watched that one on Televisa with my morning coffee yesterday.
If the Mexican team has made a splash
so far in the World Cup, the Mexican fans have also made quite an impression on the atmosphere, not only in the stadiums but outside, as well. I watched both of Mexico’s first two games and the crowd was clearly in favor of El Tri, as they say. There is also this group of four guys who bought a bus, named it La Bendicion, or the Blessing, painted it with Mexican imagery, shipped the bus to Germany, and then toured Europe promoting Mexico before arriving in Russia. They were no doubt happy to see the first two wins for their home team.
What is going on with Argentina? They are in big trouble, having drawn with tiny Iceland in their first game and then having lost to Croatia by 3-0 in their second game. Argentina now finds itself in a hole, not having won either of their first two games. Without a swift turnaround, it will be an embarrassing early exit for the soccer powerhouse and home to one of the sport’s icons, Lionel Messi.
Messi, by the way, did not have much of an impact in Argentina’s first two games. He missed a penalty in the first game against Iceland. I’m no soccer critic, so I’ll put it in the worls of the New York Times, which said this about Messi’s performance in his second game: “He looked like a man strolling in a park while a soccer match took place around him. [He] dropped deeper and deeper in search of a possession until he appeared to give up all hope of influencing the game.” Ouch. Argentina, which reached the finals in the last World Cup, will not only have to beat Nigeria, but also will have to get lucky with the results of other games if they are to advance out of the Group stage.
Iceland deserves a mention. The tiny island of just 330,000 people is the smallest nation to ever qualify for the World Cup. After their defeat of Argentina in their opener, they fell to Nigeria in their second game, but their hopes are still alive.
This World Cup is the first to feature video review. The system is called the Virtual Assistant Referee, and overturned its first call in the Brazil-Costa Rica match on Friday. The Brazilian forward Neymar engaged in a World Cup tradition, which is theatrically over-reacting to the most innocent of contact, in the hopes of tricking the referee into calling a penalty. In this case, with 12 minutes to play in the game, he did indeed draw a penalty call from the referee. But for the first time in World Cup history, a call was overturned after assistance and the penalty against Costa Rica was not awarded after all. Brazil went on to win anyway, by a score of 2-0; Neymar himself had one of the two late goals to put Brazil over the top.
I think by now we all know the pros and cons of video review in sports. It can protect the game from being influenced by an obvious referee error, but it can also interrupt the pace of play and can sometimes be used inconsistently. Then there are inevitably questions of judgment that cannot be resolved even with the best replays. But I’m not the expert in soccer—so let me hear your opinions on whether you think the virtual assistant referees are making this World Cup better or not. You can send me your thoughts to [email protected] or find me on Facebook or Twitter with the user name PlainEnglishPod.
Over the top
Today the English expression I’d like to share with you is “over the top.” I’ll give you two meanings of this phrase. First, here is how you heard it just a moment ago. Neymar had one of the two late goals to put Brazil over the top in its game against Croatia. In this sense, it means to reach an objective. In the case of the game, the objective is to win, to score more goals than your opponent. The game was tied 0-0. Then two Brazilian players scored to put their team over the top.
In our last episode, we talked about the Mexican presidential election. The polls continue to look like AMLO will win enough votes to put himself over the top. He will get enough votes to win the election—at least, it looks that way now, with just under a week left before the election.
There is another, more casual, informal way to use the English expression “over the top.” When you want to say that something is too exaggerated, too extreme, just too much, you say that something is “over the top.” Personally, I think some of the reactions of the players in the World Cup to minor contact are over the top. They’re reacting as if they’re gravely injured, rolling around on the turf. Some of those reactions are over the top—they’re too much for my taste. I shouldn’t pick on just soccer—they do the same thing in basketball too. Some people might think that buying a bus, decorating it, shipping it to Europe, and then driving it to Moscow just to see your country play in a game is over the top: too much, too exaggerated. But other people might think that’s perfectly normal.
I hope you’re enjoying the World Cup games so far. I’ve watched a couple of them. It’s hard for me because I work during the day, so I can’t see anything unless it’s on a weekend. But maybe as the tournament progresses, I’ll be able to work from home or take some time off to watch the important matches.
Don’t forget to tell me what you think about the Virtual Assistant Referee. Send me your thoughts to [email protected] or find me on Facebook or Twitter at PlainEnglishPod. The next two non-sports episodes will be Wednesday and Friday. Next Monday, we’ll have another special World Cup episode. Good luck to whomever you are rooting for in the tournament. JR says “¡Viva México!”
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